Through Clearest Crystal
by CityGirl13
Summary: On that fateful night that started it all, Sarah's friend and next-door neighbour decided to come over and keep Sarah company during her babysitting ordeal. Had Eve Greyson known the sort of adventure that night would bring, she would have stayed at her own home that night. Or would she have?


**Chapter 1: Cry-a-Baby**

Eve Greyson took another peek through her bedroom curtains at her neighbours' driveway, and gave a frustrated little sigh when she saw that the car was still parked there. Turning away and flopping back down onto her window seat, she glanced up at the clock on her mantelpiece. Sarah was already late, Eve wondered what had distracted her this time, and gave a slight wince at the thought of the telling off she'd get when she returned home.

In an effort to pass the time, as well as procrastinate packing up her room, she drifted over to her vanity table and took a seat. One wide green eye regarded her reflection critically, while the other remained hidden behind a fringe of thick blond hair. Her mother hated that fringe. She was forever pushing it back and saying;

"Oh Evie, you have such beautiful eyes, why do you hide them?"

Whenever Eve protested that she liked her fringe, because it hid the birthmark on the left side of her forehead, her mother would only sigh as she let the hair fall back down over Eve's eye.

The rest of her hair fell down her back in a mess of curls that she had come to achieve a love-hate relationship with over the eighteen years of her life. Running a brush through it enough times to sort out the big tangles, she set to pulling it back into a fishtail plait. Eve had no idea where people had ever had the patience to do the whole '100 strokes of the brush' thing, even when procrastinating she didn't feel like she had the time for that.

She looked around her room as she braided, taking in the half-ness of it all. Half of her posters taken down and put away, half of her clothes put into storage, half her suitcase already pre-packed. Her room looked like what her life felt it was doing, emptying.

Headed off to college in a weeks' time, surely she should be excited about it like all the other kids going off this year. She shouldn't be dreaded the excitement of a new place, new friends, and a life away from home. It wasn't exactly those things that had made her leave her packing to this last minute, the idea of all that still _did_ excite her. She just wished she wasn't going away to lock herself into more education for three years studying something she knew would numb her mind to non-existence.

"You went along with it," she muttered at her mirror image.

She could see her piano reflected in the room behind her, and a feeling of pre-loss swept over her. Her parents had permitted her to take her guitar and flute, but had drawn the line at the piano. She supposed that was fair enough, but considering she had had the instrument since she was young, a high level of attachment had built up over the years. The first instrument she had played, the first thing to truly inspire her love of music, her friend and confidant to which she poured out her heart and soul. Nothing was truly as therapeutic to her as playing it out through music. Sarah had her games and her stories to take her mind off the things in life which troubled her, and Eve had her music.

Turning her gaze from the piano, she wrinkled her nose critically at the sloppy work she had done on her hair. Someone it always worked better when Sarah did it. Eve often joked with her friend that Sarah used her magic powers to will Eve's hair into obedience. Eve often wished for the straight brown locks that Sarah possessed, but with the amount of times Sarah had also told Eve that she wanted her blond curls, she supposed she had to attribute it to the 'grass is greener on the other side' way of thinking.

As if thinking about her best friend had been a sign, Eve heard the car start up next door.

She shot up from her seat and ran to the window, pulling back her curtains to check the street. Yes, there was Sarah's father's car pulling out of the drive, and heading down the street. Eve waited until she saw it round the corner, before grabbing her coat and tearing off down the stairs.

"Bye mum! Bye dad!" she called out as she shoved her feet into her ankle-boots.

"Where are you going?" her dad inquired, poking his head around the living room doorframe to address her.

"I'm headed over to Sarah's to keep her company," Eve replied.

Her father frowned, "How's that packing going?"

"_Dad_," she sighed exasperatedly, "I'll get it done!"

"I'm sure," he arched an eyebrow critically.

"Love you both!" Eve said; ducking out of the front door before more pestering could happen.

The dash between the houses didn't even take a moment, but Eve's coat hood was still quite damp by the time she reached the shelter of Sarah's front porch. Hastening up the stairs, she didn't even bother to knock before entering the house. When the girls knew that their parents were out, formalities tended to go out the window.

"Sarah? Where are you?" she shouted; shrugging out of her coat, and hanging it up on the rack.

"In my room!" her friend called back.

Eve bit her lip. Uh oh, there had been a fight before Sarah's father and step-mother had left.

She heard Toby crying from the main bedroom as she made her way up the stairs, but hoping that he'd soon calm down, she went to her friend first. The two of them were used to Toby crying by now, he normally stopped as soon as one of them actually went into the room.

"Hey," she said softly when she entered Sarah's bedroom, "I waited until I saw the car leave."

That had become a necessity for the girls, after one memorable incident when Sarah's step-mother had accused them of being too distracted with each other to look after Toby.

"Hey," Sarah replied sulkily; staring dismally at her reflection.

Eve sat down on the bed, and started playing with Charlie Bear; "What happened?"

"She's so horrible!" Sarah exclaimed, turning around and slouching over the back of her chair to face Eve, "I was only a little bit late, and she practically bit my head off about it! They always give me no notice when they're going out, it's like they just expect that I'll always be there to do what they want! Like I'm a slave!"

"What were you doing?" Eve inquired.

"A scene in the park," Sarah held up her battered copy of 'Labyrinth'.

"Can you remember that line yet?"

"No," Sarah sighed, "It always mucks me up that one! Mum says that actors always have one thing which they stumble over most in a script though, and she says to just keep practising. Not like _her_, she just things it's a waste of time and I should focus on 'important things'. Urgh! You're so lucky you're moving away from home soon, Eve."

"It's not all good, my parents wasn't exactly flash on what I want either," she said to her younger friend, "And I get the feeling that I'll miss high school a bit,"

"But you'll be at college, away from parents, away from annoying little siblings," Sarah argued.

"You're right about the parents thing, but I don't have little siblings, except for you."

Sarah glowered, "Don't rub it in."

"I might feel better if I was actually studying music, or just playing music and not studying," Eve noted, "If you want, we can run through 'Labyrinth' tonight."

"Can I dress you up?" Sarah inquired; getting a glint in her eye that Eve was all too familiar with.

"Why do you think I'm wearing this?" Eve held out the skirt of her white dress, "It's to save myself your manic costume obsession."

Sarah stuck her tongue out, but was grinning at last, "You ruin my fun."

"Just glad to make you happy again," Eve flopped back to lie on the bed with Charlie Bear on her chest. She frowned as she looked up at Sarah's toy cupboards, "Hey, where's Lancelot?"

The happy look vanished from Sarah's face in a flash, "Someone's been in my room again!"

"Sarah…" Eve said warningly.

It was too late however, the damage had been done. Sarah threw off the striped beanie she had donned, and stormed out of her room. Eve followed her quickly, not wanting her friend to get worked into too big a rage at her infant half-brother.

When Sarah walked into the big room and saw Lancelot on the ground, an indignant cry broke out from her lips, as she rushed to pick him up and cradle him.

"Your step-mum probably gave Lancelot to him, there's no way Toby could have reached him," Eve pointed out; hoping that it might calm Sarah's anger.

But Sarah's angry green gaze was fixed on her brother, "Why can't you just stay away from my things? I don't care if she fetched Lancelot for you, you have your own toys, and she had no right to go grabbing mine!"

Toby started to cry even louder, picking up the rage directed towards him, but not understanding it.

"Sarah, it's fine," Eve tried to placate her friend, "C'mon, let's just leave him alone and have fun, it's my last week."

"I hate you," Sarah leaned in over Toby's crib, "I hate you!"

"Sarah!" Eve exclaimed. She didn't exactly like Toby herself, but she knew that Sarah didn't dislike him that much. She hated it when her friend got so worked up like this.

"I'll tell you a story Eve, and Toby can listen," Sarah's voice took on an ominous tone.

Eve just sighed, the sooner Sarah got this out of her system, the better. And at least she wasn't shouting anymore. Eve went over to Toby's crib and picked him up, rocking him gently in an effort to make him be quiet. It failed.

"Once upon a time," Sarah began, "There was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child, and wanted everything to himself, and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew is that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers. So one night, when the baby had be particularly cruel to her, she called on the goblins for help!"

Sarah came up to Eve, and took the still crying Toby from her arms. Eve sat down on the bed and began to fiddle with her hair.

"Sarah, enough."

"Shh, let me finish the story," Sarah admonished.

"'Say your right words,' the goblins said, 'and we'll take the baby to the castle, and you will be free!' But the girl knew, that the Goblin King would keep the baby in his castle for ever and ever and ever, and turn it into a goblin! And so the girl suffered in silence. Until one day, when she was tired from a day of housework, and she was hurt by the harsh words of her stepmother, and she could no longer stand it..."

Sarah looked down at her baby brother, Toby's face was wrinkled up with his sobs, and his cries only seemed to get louder.

"Stop it, stop crying."

"Sarah, why don't you give him to me? Let's just calm him down and watch a movie or something," Eve offered.

But Sarah's whole focus was now on her little brother.

"I'll say the words," she told Toby warningly, and when his sobs seemed to increase, she laughed, "Oh no, I mustn't."

Eve stood up, picked Lancelot up, and made as if to go towards the door, "C'mon Sarah, let's go."

"I can bear it no longer!" Sarah cried, holding Toby aloft, "Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be take this child of mine far away from me!"

No magic happened, no Goblin King came too take the baby away, Toby only kept on crying. Eve sighed, leaning against the wall, and deciding to just let her friend's dramatic sequence run its course.

"That's not it!"

Eve jumped, spinning around and casting her eye all over the room. That hadn't been Sarah's voice, Toby was too young to talk, but Eve had clearly heard a squeaky voice talking. She decided that she must have imagined it, but that didn't stop a light shiver from running up her spine. She told herself it hadn't been real, but the back of her neck still prickled.

"Sa-"

"It didn't even start with I wish!"

Eve's eyes widened and the creeping sensation she felt only increased. That had been another voice, different to the first, but similar. Sarah didn't seem to have noticed anything, she was busy putting Toby back in his crib. She shook her head with a final glance at him, then turned to Eve.

"Fine, let's go do something fun."

"Oh, yeah," Eve swallowed, "Let's."

"You okay?" Sarah inquired as she got closer, "You look even paler than normal."

"I'm fine," Eve put on a shaky grin, "Don't worry about it."

Sarah had her hand on the light switch as she took one last look at Toby's crib.

"I wish the goblins would take you away, right now," she said.

The moment Sarah flicked off the light, an unexplainable wave of unease hit Eve. Something similar clearly hit Sarah, because the two girls shared a look of shocked horror before they came to the same realisation.

Toby had stopped crying.


End file.
